Music
Sleater-Kinney are finally home. After starting its reunion tour in Spokane, of all places, the band returned to the Crystal Ballroom on Tuesday night to play the same venue where it ended its original run in 2006. It was a cause for celebration, sure, but Sleater-Kinney didn’t spend much time leaning on past glories. Opening with the fierce punch of “Price Tag” and “Fangless,” the ...
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Music
Who the hell kicks off a tour in Spokane?I’m pretty sure bands actually from Spokane don’t start their tours here, much less a band fans have been clamoring to see again for close to a decade. Yet, this is where Sleater-Kinney decided to play its first show in nine years—at a chain concert venue, in the middle of a drab downtown that seemed to have gone to sleep an hour before Carrie Brownstein, ...
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Music
In 2006, when Sleater-Kinney played its final show ever at the Crystal Ballroom, an invisible clock began running, counting down to the legendary Portland-via-Olympia riot grrrls' eventual reunion. It just felt inevitable, considering the group didn't seem to implode with acrimony, and because, let's face it, no one stays broken up anymore these days. Well, that clock has finally hit zero. This morning, ...
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After the Blazers take both games in Houston, it’s getting tough to not fully believe.

News
The Blazers are in the playoffs. So, in addition to regularly scheduled Blazers blog programming from Mike Acker, we've asked Janet Weiss, a huge Blazers fan whom you might know from some of her other projects, to provide post-game commentary. In September of 1989 I moved to Portland having never attended a professional basketball game. That changed quickly. The Trail Blazers were ...
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The Blazers won their first playoff game in three years. You never would have known from TNT's post-game show.

News
The Blazers are in the playoffs. So, in addition to regularly scheduled Blazers blog programming from Mike Acker, we've asked Janet Weiss, a huge Blazers fan whom you might know from some of her other projects, to provide post-game commentary. The Trail Blazers have no real persona. They entered the 2014 playoffs nice guys with great chemistry, guys who joke around and seem to genuinely like each ...
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Wild Flag (Merge)

Album Reviews
[UNDER THE BANNER OF ROCK] In the music video for
“Romance,” the lead single on their recently released self-titled debut,
the members of Wild Flag play unlikely work buddies who, on their lunch
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Music
I can't believe I missed the Wild Flag show. No, really: After watching video of the new Portland supergroup play a song called "Future Crimes" five times in a row—and standing up and jeopardizing the whole knee rehab-thing by playing some windmill air guitar in my cubicle—I can safely say that this is the closet thing we're going to get to seeing Sleater-Kinney play in a long time. While ...
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Music
Looking back at the LocalCut archives, I realize that I haven't written a proper off-the-cuff live review in almost two years. But this morning, while laboring through a glut of PR emails and music listings, a funny thing happened: I couldn't stop thinking about the show I saw last night. Crazy for a music writer, I know, but that's just the power Carrie Brownstein holds over me when she's playing ...
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